Written Answers Monday 5 July 2010

Scottish Executive

Business Rates

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to review the potential for equalisation of business rates for off-trade and on-trade licensees as referred to in evidence by the Scottish Licensed Trade Association to the Health and Sport Committee on 10 March 2010, ( Official Report c. 2897).

John Swinney: Business rates are a property based tax calculated using the rateable value of a property. Rateable values are set independent of the Scottish Government by the Scottish Assessors.

  The Scottish Government has put in place a number of measures to support on-trade licensees through business rates relief schemes. From 1 April 2010 the thresholds for the small business bonus scheme and rural rate relief were uplifted, both of which will benefit on-trade licensees, including many public houses.

Freight

Cathy Peattie (Falkirk East) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the freight facilities grants awarded in the last five years showing the amount of traffic that it was anticipated would switch from road to rail or water as a result of the work being funded.

Stewart Stevenson: This information can be found on the Scottish Government website using the following link:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Transport/FT/FFGTableofawards.

Hospital Acquired Infection

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the UK Government’s decision to require the NHS in England to report rates of MRSA bacteraemia and Clostridium difficile infections weekly, what steps it is taking to provide the same level of information in Scotland.

Nicola Sturgeon: NHS boards in Scotland already provide information on MRSA, Clostridium difficile, hand hygiene and environmental cleaning compliance and the causes of adverse incidents. This is published on NHS board websites and discussed publicly at bi-monthly NHS board meetings.

  A national HAI reporting template used to capture and report this data has recently been revised and issued to NHS boards with a six month review date. This places a requirement on boards to publish hospital level cases of Clostridium difficile, MSSA and MRSA bacteraemia on a monthly basis. We will consider the merits of increasing the frequency of reporting as part of our ongoing review process.

  Improvements in our local monitoring arrangements, that go beyond those limited to MRSA and Clostridium difficile in England, are allowing NHS boards to identify issues early and take the necessary action to ensure infection control practices and procedures are being applied effectively at local level.

NHS Hospitals

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many car parking fines have been issued by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde in the last year.

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many car parking fines have been issued by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to staff in the last year.

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many car parking fines have been issued by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to patients in the last year.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-34359 on 22 June 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

NHS Hospitals

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to assess the impact of hospital car park charges on NHS staff.

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is evidence of a significant disadvantage to NHS staff arising from car park charges.

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is evidence of NHS hospital car park charges having a disproportionate affect on lower-paid staff.

Nicola Sturgeon: Hospital car park charges were abolished at NHSScotland operated car parks with effect from 31 December 2008. That did not end the duty of NHS boards to manage their car parking appropriately, balancing the car parking needs of patients, visitors and staff.

  My answer to question S3W-34359 on 22 June 2010 outlined the options available to NHS boards to manage their car parking. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/default.aspx.

  There are no plans to assess the impact of those options on particular groups of car park user.

National Health Service

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-34286 by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 June 2010, whether the information requested will be available at a later date given that this information was given, in the answer to question S3W-25720 by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 August 2009, for the years 2004 to 2008.

Nicola Sturgeon: S3W-34286 was answered on the basis of a specific analysis by the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland which was limited in the extent to which it could fully reflect the true prevalence of errors in surgery. Accordingly, there are no plans for this analysis to be repeated. NHS boards collect information on adverse events, which will include those arising from surgery. In contrast to hospital discharge records, the source used in the previous analysis, locally held adverse event data give an indication of whether or not harm occurred. Monitoring these data is the responsibility of NHS boards and they are not collated or evaluated centrally.

National Health Service

Ross Finnie (West of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-34283 by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 June 2010, whether the information requested will be available at a later date given that this information was given, in the answer to question S3W-25723 by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 August 2009, for the years 2004 to 2008.

Nicola Sturgeon: S3W-34283 was answered on the basis of a specific analysis by the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland which was limited in the extent to which it could fully reflect the true prevalence of errors in surgery. Accordingly, there are no plans for this analysis to be repeated. NHS boards collect information on adverse events, which will include those arising from surgery. In contrast to hospital discharge records, the source used in the previous analysis, locally held adverse event data give an indication of whether or not harm occurred. Monitoring these data is the responsibility of NHS boards and they are not collated or evaluated centrally.

Rail Network

Jackson Carlaw (West of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) accidents, (b) injuries and (c) fatalities there have been on the rail network in each year since 1997, also broken down by line.

Stewart Stevenson: The following table includes all accidents on the Scottish rail network statutorily reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995. They include workforce accidents, accidents involving the general public and accidents arising from trespass and vandalism such as missiles through cab windows, fires and running into obstructions, etc. The injury statistics also include all workforce and general public injuries occurring on railway premises, including those arising from trespass and attempted suicides.

  

 
1997-88
1998-99
1999-2000
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008


All Accidents
121
156
139
151
116
83
50
49
41
46
53
47


All Injuries
440
329
339
385
375
326
303
293
316
248
274
210


All Fatalities
19
19
25
27
20
17
27
19
21
28
21
21


Fatalities Excluding Trespassers and Suicides
0
0
0
2
5
2
1
1
3
1
4
1



  Source: Scottish Transport Statistics.

  Note: Statistics broken down on a line by line basis are not readily available.